The article aims to develop a unified methodical approach to determining the word-for-word contents of conversations on phonograms when conducting analysis of audio recordings in forensic institutions of the Russian Ministry of Justice.

The author summarizes the existing experience; addresses the institutional, legal, and theoretical aspects of the expert task in question and its legal significance. He also describes its type, object, subject, stages, and the range of the applied methods.

Based on the author’s classification of phonograms and practical examples, the author analyzes the approaches enabling experts to solve not only typical but also particular tasks. The article also clarifies the competence of forensic experts working in the system of the Russian Ministry of Justice, who can determine the word-for-word contents of recorded conversations in the course of forensic audio and video analysis.

The article presents the main directions of research carried out within the framework of a comprehensive forensic environmental and construction analysis. This kind of examinations can be conducted on criminal, civil and arbitration cases arising from damage to environmental objects caused by illegal actions committed during the erection and operation of constructions.

The authors describe in detail the areas of research which involve specialists in construction and environmental science. To organize multiple studies, the authors provide classifications of solved forensic tasks formed on two grounds: the chronological orientation of examinations and their types. Following the first basis, the authors present retrospective (directed to the past), actualistic (considering the object of expert research in the current time) and prognostic (determining possible changes in the object’s characteristics in the future) tasks. Among the most common tasks for forensic practice, the authors name: existential, identification, diagnostic, situational, regulatory, technical, classification, as well as other tasks that are relevant to an investigated case and determine the effectiveness of the investigation of construction and environmental criminal violations.

The issues of assessing the reliability of experts’ opinions are common for Russian and Anglo-Saxon legal proceedings. In the Russian legislation there are no legal norms or regulated rules defining this procedure. At the same time, in the USA there is Rule 702 “Expert Witness Testimony” of the Federal Code of Evidence which establishes four criteria that courts should consider when assessing the admissibility of the testimony of a forensic expert. Besides, based on court decisions, Fry and Daubert standards have been adopted. They determine criteria for methods used in conducting forensic examination in the United States. The article analyzes and evaluates the compliance of expert methods applied in Russia with the Fry and Daubert standards. The analysis shows that not all methods meet the criteria of Daubert standard. In particular, the structures of the so-called subjective methods do not provide calculations of a known or potential error rate as well as a mechanism for monitoring the conduct of various stages of a study. The article also discusses other foreign projects aimed at minimizing erroneous conclusions and reforming the system of forensic examination: the Innocence project, reports prepared by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS report) and the US Presidential Council for Science and Technology (PCAST report). The authors believe that it is essential for the Russian legislation to develop criteria for evaluating experts’ opinions, research methods and scientific validity of the obtained results as well as the to formulate the appropriate norms.

The article addresses factors able to influence the results of determining the performance characteristics of gasoline using calculation methods. The author presents the results of a study of three brands of automobile gasoline conducted by means of gas-liquid chromatography with Chromatek-DHA software. The calculated operational characteristics of gasoline have been compared with the results of their analysis by standardized methods. The article demonstrates the possibility of using data on the group hydrocarbon composition in solving expert identification tasks regarding automobile gasoline that has not been exposed to external factors.

The article presents an algorithm of analysis of coniferous timber materials (Pinus sylvestris L., Pinus sibirica Du Tour, Larix decidua Mill., Abies alba L. and Picea abies (L.) Karst.) using the spectroscopy method in the near-infrared region. Timber is a complex organic material consisting of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and extractive substances. These compounds generate absorption bands in the near-infrared region which are mainly overtones and combination bands of the O-H, N-H and C-H functional groups. The authors suggest the best ways to correct scattering considering the specific features of the samples under examination. Based on the application of linear discriminant analysis, a method is proposed for the automatic identification of the timber species by diffuse reflection spectra in the near-infrared region, as well as key parameters sufficient for the classification procedure are determined. The obtained LDA-models showed high predictive capability. The overall average classification accuracy reached 97,6%. Based on the results obtained, it can be stated that the NIR spectroscopy is suitable for solving tasks related to the identification of the timber species; it has proven to be an effective tool for distinguishing wood species. 

The article offers a simple and descriptive approach to automating of solving the tasks of forensic examination of cadastral valuation of commercial real estate: office, retail, and warehouse premises. The authors address the application of geoinformation methods and assessment quality control. They provide a description of preliminary data processing methods, as well as construction of spatial rasters of real estate prices in various groups. For the first time, the arithmetic of spatial rasters for constructing the main multipliers and coefficients of the commercial real estate market has been studied.

The proposed model will enable the forensic expert institutions of the Russian Ministry of Justice to adequately respond to the challenges of the time: to increase the volume and quality of expertise production while reducing their time. Government agencies and large consumers of valuation services will be able to significantly improve the efficiency of management, reduce the risks of underestimation or overestimation of transaction prices associated with the lack of transparency of evaluation results, collusion with interested parties, and appraisers will be able to improve the quality and cost of their service.

The right to receive fair wages is guaranteed by the state. The protection and restoration of violated rights are entrusted to various state structures, including investigative and judicial authorities. To establish an objective picture of the event in question and the fact of non-payment of wages to employees, a forensic economic examination is assigned.

The following methodological guidelines consider the main approaches to conducting forensic examinations concerning getting the salary and other payments by an employee. These include the tasks of establishing the correctness of the amounts of wages paid, compliance with the due date for the payments, determining whether the employer has the financial capacity to pay the employees on time and in full. The author gives a list of the objects of expert research and provides their brief description. The article also addresses the content of questions that fall within the competence of a forensic economist and of those that do not. Based on the examples from expert practice, the author gives algorithms for solving the tasks on the calculation and payment of wages. The final part of the guidelines presents a brief analysis of the legal regulation of liability for non-payment of wages abroad.

The article outlines the legal, theoretical, and methodological framework of forensic psychological research of information materials on cases of violation of minors’ sexual integrity committed using information and telecommunication networks. Based on the expert analysis of legal norms, psychological theoretical and expert study of the phenomena behind the acts of sexual abuse, the author presents the concepts of the object and subject of this type of expert research, the tasks to be solved, as well as the basic expert concepts. The author also justifies the advisability of appointing comprehensive expert psychological and linguistic examinations to investigate the objects of this kind.

The article is devoted to the linguistic aspect of examinations on crimes against sexual integrity and sexual freedom. Based on the consistent legal, expert and linguistic analysis, the author observes the formation of a new type of forensic linguistic and comprehensive psychological and linguistic examinations, the object of which is the communication on sexual topics with minors in social networks and messengers. He also analyzes criminal law provisions covering crimes against a person’s sexual inviolability and sexual freedom. Subsequently, the expert concepts of “sexual acts”, “motivation” and “threat”, which are advisable to establish during the examination, are developed and brought into correlation with the linguistic knowledge. Finally, the author proposes methodological approaches to solving expert linguistic tasks when examining messages to the minors on sexual topics.

At this point many of the concepts of environmental forensics have been theoretically elaborated, however its subtheory is yet to be developed. The article addresses the concept and subject of the environmental forensic subtheory. The author demonstrates that the subject, object and tasks of environmental forensics are not accordingly the subject, object and tasks of the environmental forensic subtheory: within the framework of the subtheory the regularities of the general theory of forensic examination regarding the environmental investigations are revealed. The author also proposes the definition of the subject of the environmental forensic subtheory, establishes its place as a part of the theory of expert diagnostics.

The authors present an analysis of the practice of forensic portrait examinations appointed on criminal and civil cases to the Russian Federal Centre of Forensic Science of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, the objects of which have been atypical. These have been human facial images performed in various techniques: engravings on stone, cartoons, caricatures, dolls made in workshops and author’s studios. The authors propose a new methodical approach, taking into account the technology of manufacturing such human images, they also consider their features.

The article deals with the issue of the terminology used to define different phenomena of illegal sexual interaction through indirect communication – via electronic means, including the Internet. There is a certain ambiguity of some concepts and terms used in the context of sexual abuse against children and of the violation of their sexual integrity, for instance such as “sexting” and “online grooming”. At the same time the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation operates with the concepts of “sexual acts” and “lewd acts”.

The author makes an attempt to bring clarity and unambiguity to the understanding of the terms used both in scientific studies, and in forensic psychological and comprehensive psychological and linguistic examinations. The presented article is debatable, invites to the discussion of the pressing issue of the language of scientific research in forensic expertise.